I have, I think three pairs of these. Very cool brakes but not a gram of titanium on them as far as I can tell. The angled pivots were touted as "self-energizing" or some such like.
I was interested in the earlier post about these being short reach. I have a pair that is pretty long reach. I used them on a very odd mid 70's Motobecane Le Champion which had touring clearances, even though Le Champion was supposedly a racing model. Mafac Competitions were too short, but the CLB's just fit with the shoes moved to the bottom of the slot.
So it sounds like these brakes came in at least two different reaches. I guess it is possible that the short reach model was titaniuim, but I rather doubt it. I believe these brakes also came with aluminium cable housings. There were reports that the cables themselves were aluminum, leading to speculation they were dangerous, but those were reports were evidently incorrect.
As to the Le Champion mentioned above, it has what I firmly believe to be the original finish with Le Champion decals, and half-chromed forks and stays consistent with Le Champion. But the clearances are quite large, and it has the black and red paint scheme more often seen on the Grand Record. This paint scheme did appear on Le Champion in that era, including one reviewed in Bicycling! at the time. But the large clearances on a racing model in the mid 70's have me puzzled. I did buy this bike from Canada, picking it up in Niagra Falls, ON. So maybe this was a variation made for the Canadian market.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, TX
Joseph Bender-Zanoni <joebz@optonline.net> wrote: They are not part titanium but they are very interesting technically. The posts are at an angle so that they are self energizing. Also the "spring" is the straddle wire. I very nice buy at $44.00 for someone.
Joe Bender-Zanoni Great Notch, NJ
Kurt Sperry wrote:
> I wonder if those are actually even partly Ti or if the name simply
> refers
> to the the color of anodizing or something similar. If they're
> actually Ti
> that's got to be a bargain price.
>
> Kurt Sperry
> Bellingham WA
> USA